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Disraeli  not  only  founded  a  remarkable  school 
of  fiction,  both  romantic  and  political,  but  he  was, 
and  will  remain,  the  sole  and  magnificent  expo- 
nent of  it,  till  nature  shall  again  mold  a  man  as 
many-sided. 

—GEORGE  SAINTSBURY. 


Had  Disraeli  devoted  himself^  as  most  men  do, 
to  a  single  phase  of  life,  men  would  have  hailed 
him  as  heaven-born.  But  his  genius  overflowed 
into  many  channels  and  bewildered  men,  as  the 
delta  of  the  Ganges  blinds  the  sailor  to  the  great- 
ness of  the  parent  river.  —WILLIAM  BLACK. 


Wi)t  (Earl  of 
3Stacon0firIb,  lt.(§. 


Keys  to  the  Famous  Characters  Delineated  in 

his  Historical  Romances,  with  Portraits 

and  Biographies,  Supplemented  by 

a  Critical  Appreciation  of 


LORD   BEACONSFIELD 


Dr.   H.   PEREIRA   MENDES 


Copyright,   1904, 

BY 

M.  WALTER   DUNNE 


Contents 

Page 

Introduction  (Robert  Arnot) I  i 

Keys  to  the  Characters  in  the  Novels   ....  16 

Brief  Analyses  of  the  Historical  Romances  of 

Disraeli 23 

Portraits  with   Brief    Biographies  of   Celebrated 

Characters 47 

Cartoons 65 

Beaconsfield  in  the  Eyes   of   Contemporaries  and 

Critics 73 

Concerning  Edmund  W.  Gosse 74 

An  Appreciation  of  Disraeli  (Pereira  Mendes)       .  77 


List  of  Illustrations 

Page 

Benjamin  Disraeli,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield   ,      .  Frontispiece 

Countess  of  Blessington 49 

Monsignor  Capel 49 

Sir  William  Vernon  Harcourt 50 

Sir  Robert  Peel 50 

Baron  von  Humboldt 51 

Earl  Granville, 51 

Prof.  Goldwin  Smith 52 

Cardmal  Wiseman 52 

Prince  Bismarck 53 

W.  E.  Gladstone 53 

Charles  Dickens 54 

Lord  Palmerston 54 

Count  Metternich 55 

Duke  of  Wellmgton 55 

Wilham  Makepeace  Thackeray 56 

John  Bright 56 

Robert  Southey 57 

Samuel  Wilberforce 57 

Mrs.  T.  Coutts 58 

Napoleon  III 58 

Prince  Gortschakoff 59 

King  Leopold 59 

Baron  Lionel  Nathan  de  Rothschild 60 


List  of  Illustrations — Continued. 

Page 

George  Canning 60 

Alexander  II 61 

Richard  Cobden 61 

John,  Marquis  of  Bute 62 

Cardinal  Manning 62 

Lord  Byron 63 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley 63 

"Beau"  Brummell 64 

Sarah,  Countess  of  Jersey 64 

Library  of  the  House  of  Lords 75 

The  Young  Disraeh 76 

Prime  Minister's  Room,  1  0  Downing  Street      .      .  81 

First  Lord  of  the  Treasury's  Room 85 

House  of  Commons 87 

House  of  Lords 89 

Hughenden  Manor 91 

Queen  Victoria's  Memorial  to  the  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field  in  Hughenden  Church 93 

Cartoons 

Page 

"Critics" 65 

"New  Crowns  for  Old  Ones" 67 

Our  "  Imperial  "  Guard 67 

The  "  Pas  de  Deux  " 71 


^-__^ 


Q 


ntroductiorx^ 
-RobeptArnpt,^ 


N  this  volume,  a  com- 
panion to  the  series,  the 
publisher  has  the  honor 
to  present  to  the  reader 
,the  full  tabulation  of  the 
\r_?»^-ir.>^  -iv  ui  hiH  ^  ^\  K^ys  to  the  famous  char- 
V  \(U^^7^^^^%'5^^  v'-'lll    II    lA.  ^^ters  introduced  by  Lord 

Beaconsfield  into  his  great 
historical  romances.     He 

^  _     presents    also    portraits 

and  biographies  of  many  of  these  distinguished  charac- 
ters, together  with  synopses  of  the  novels,  romances,  and 
dramas  which  comprise  the  series,  as  well  as  a  few  of 
the  most  celebrated  cartoons  which  appeared  in  Punch 
during  Lord  Beaconsfield's  political  career,  and  a  short 
history  of  that  tremendous  political  association  which  was 
founded  in  memory  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  under  the  name 
of  the  Primrose  League — a  name  given  to  it  in  perpet- 
uation of  the  Earl's  predilection  for  that  modest  flower. 
The  Keys,  however,  are  the  most  important  feature 
of  the  volume.     The  identities  of  some  of  the  characters 


revealed  in  these  Keys  have,  from  time  to  time,  been 
guessed  at ;  but  never,  until  Lord  Rowton  consented  to 
reveal  to  the  publisher  the  true  names  of  those  political 
and  social  celebrities  introduced  by  the  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field  into  his  novels,  has  the  world  been  enabled  to  read, 
with  conscious  knowledge  of  the  characters  represented, 
the  history  of  England  during  that  most  fateful  and  mo- 
mentous era  known  as  the  "  Victorian  Age  " — an  era  of 
storm  and  stress,  gravid,  indeed,  with  war-clouds,  but 
fraught  with  universal  progress  and  tremendous  growth, 
in  which  the  central  figure  for  nearly  fifty  years  was  the 
Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 

Of  all  possible  aids  to  interest  in  the  reading  of  fiction, 
not  one  is  so  powerful  as  the  identification  with  some 
famous  personage  of  the  hero  or  heroine  of  the  book 
being  read.  The  novel  may  be  without  any  historical 
bearing,  may  be  purely  imaginative,  and  may  surround 
the  person  described  with  circumstances  and  place  him 
in  localities  entirely  alien  to  the  facts  of  his  life ;  yet, 
given  an  accurate  description  of  his  personal  qualities 
and  of  his  virtues,  vices,  or  foibles,  and  the  book  has  at 
once  a  living  and  lasting  interest,  which  is  purely  individual. 
When,  however,  to  the  identification  of  a  person  in  a 
novel  with  a  famous  character  are  added  faithful  descrip- 
tions of  his  environment,  conduct,  and  achievements  in 
life,  the  novel  becomes  not  only  individual,  but  historical. 

Conceive,  then,  a  series  of  great  romances,  wherein 
nearly  every  character  introduced  represents  some  cele- 
brated personage,  whose  ambitions,  deeds,  idiosyncrasies, 
social  and  political  position  are  dissected  with  the  scalpel 
of  a  surgeon — romances  whereof  the  plots  are  founded 


on  the  history  of  a  World-Power  dunng  the  period  of 
the  writer,  and  at  once  there  is  before  you  a  guide  to 
the  inner  political  and  social  history  of  the  epoch  dealt 
with,  which  none  of  the  ordinary  text-books  relating  to 
that  time  could  possibly  afford. 

No  supremer  test  of  the  power  and  authority  of  a 
writer  can  be  had  than  the  successful  accomplishment  of 
such  a  task.  And  it  is  to  this  test  the  genius  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield — from  the  time  when,  as  a  boy  of  twenty- 
two,  he  dazzled  England  with  "  Vivian  Grey "  to  the 
day  when,  after  a  career  unequalled  in  English  history, 
he  gave  "  Endymion  "  to  the  world — has  made  trium- 
phant answer,  an  answer  that  time  is  now  confirming, 
the  answer  of  Immortality. 

In  the  dcizzling  array  of  characters  that  speak  and 
move  in  Lord  Beaconsfield's  novels  are  seen  the  leaders 
in  every  phase  of  human  activity — war  and  diplomacy, 
literature  and  art,  politics  and  theology.  The  proudest 
anstocracy  in  Europe  mingle  familiarly  with  the  reader. 
Kings,  emperors,  statesmen,  cardinals,  bishops,  field- 
marshals,  orators,  wits,  celebrated  beauties,  all  of  whom 
influenced  the  making  of  history  in  the  golden  Victorian 
age — an  age  of  which  that  builder  of  empire.  Beacons- 
field,  was  the  moulder  and  master-craftsman — pass  in 
review  and  play  their  former  roles  in  these  great  his- 
torical romances. 

The  students  of  English  history  who  would  learn 
the  secret  workings  of  state  and  society  in  the  days  of 
Queen  Victona,  and  who  would  discover  the  hidden 
springs  that  fed  the  various  currents  of  events  in  years  of 
momentous  change,  can  gather  from  these  volumes,  led 


by  one  who  through  his  genius,  position,  and  intimate 
knowledge  could  speak  with  supreme  authority,  all  that 
they  seek  to  know. 

It  has  been  remarked  on  somewhat  high  authority 
that  the  good  men  do  dies  with  them,  and  in  the  case  of 
famous  statesmen  the  remark  has,  in  the  majority  of  in- 
stances, been  justified. 

In  the  case  of  Lord  Beaconsfield,  however,  the  reverse 
is  true.  There  exists  to-day  in  England  the  greatest 
political  organization  in  this  world — an  organization 
founded  not  alone  in  honor  of  his  memory,  but  for  the 
perpetuation  of  those  political  principles  he  gave  his 
life  to  demonstrate  and  enforce,  namely,  the  Primrose 
League,  so  called  from  the  belief  that  the  primrose  was 
Lord  Beaconsfield's  favorite  flower,  a  belief  founded 
upon  a  letter  written  by  him  to  his  secretary,  in  which 
he  mentioned  the  primrose. 

The  League  was  founded  by  Sir  Henry  Drummond 
^X^olff  and  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  upon  the  day  of 
the  unveiling  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  statue,  when  all  the 
members  of  the  Conservative  party  in  the  House  of 
Commons  appeared  with  primroses  in  their  buttonholes. 

From  small  beginnings  the  League  grew  with  amaz- 
ing rapidity  into  the  tremendous  political  machine  it  now 
is.  Founded  not  upon  the  hope  of  political  preferment 
or  for  any  adventitious  gain,  but  solely  upon  the  devotion 
of  the  British  democracy  to  those  imperial  principles  of 
foreign  and  home  policy  of  which  Lord  Beaconsfield 
was  the  great  exponent,  it  stands  alone  in  motive  and 
unselfish  in  constitution. 

In  a  letter  to  the   editor,  dated    from  Westminster 


upon  June  25,  1 904,  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  League, 
Mr.  George  Lane  Fox,  writes  as  follows :  "  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  send  you  a  complete  list  of  the  members  of 
the  Primrose  League.  Up  to  last  Saturday  the  records 
show  that  we  have  enrolled  1,676,425  names,  and  you 
may  take  it  for  granted  that  every  Conservative  in  Eng- 
land is  a  working  member." 

The  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  who  was  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  colleague  during  the  momentous  days  of  the  Berlin 
Conference,  was  the  first  Chancellor  of  the  League — an 
eloquent  testimony  to  the  reverence  and  esteem  m  which 
he  held  the  great  Prime  Minister. 

As  an  ever-living  and  ever-increasing  testimony  to 
the  greatness  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  hfe  work,  and  lo 
the  love  and  reverence  borne  for  him  by  the  country  of 
his  adoption,  the  Primrose  League  stands  and  grows 
to-day.  Unique  in  its  formation  and  character,  not  a 
monument  of  marble,  but  of  flesh  and  blood,  it  is  the 
one  reward  that  a  man  so  unseeking  of  gain  and  so 
devoted  to  his  country  as  was  the  great  Earl  would  have 
desired. 


to  the  Principal  Characters 


in  **  Vivian 


Grey  '\ 


Vivian  Grey,  Benjamin  Disraeli 

Marquess  of  Carabas,  Marquess  of  Clanricarde 

Mr.  Foaming  Fudge,  Lord  Brougham 

Mr.  Charlatan  Gas,  The  Right  Hon.  George  Canning 

Colonel  Delmington,  Colonel  Lowden 

Lord  Past  Century,  Earl  of  Eldon 

Mr.  Liberal  Principles,  Mr.  Huskisson 

Lord  Alhambra,  Lord  Porchester 

Ernest  Clay,  Sidney  Gorst,  Esq. 

The  Duke  of  Waterloo,  The  Duke  of  Wellington 

Prince  Hungary,  Prince  Esterhazy 

Mrs.  Million,  Mrs.  Coutts 

Lord  Prima  Donna,  Lord  William  Lennox 

Marchioness  of  Almacks,  Marchioness  of  Londonderry 

Liberal  Snake,  Mr.  Macculloch 

Lady  Doubtful,  Lady  Blessington 

Prince  Xtmnpqrtosklw,  Prince  Gortschakoff 

Stanislaus  Hoax,  Theodore  Hook 

Marquess  of  Grandgout,  Marquess  of  Hertford 

Mr.  Stucco,  Mr.  Nash 

Mr.  Justice  St.  Prose,  Mr.  Justice  Parke 

Vivacity  Dull,  Horace  Tw^iss,  Esq. 


n  J-,  ^ 


s;c^ 


to  the  Principal  Characters 
,>^.>.:^^in  ''Vivian  Grey  J 


^ 


Duke  of  Juggernaut,  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Vivida  Vis,  J.  Wilson  Croker,  Esq. 

Lord  Lowersdale,  Lord  Lonsdale 

Lord  Manfred,  Lord  Dudley 

The  Misses  Otranto,  The  Misses  Berry 

Lady  Madehne  Trevor,  Lady  Churchill 

Mr.  Sherborne,  Isaac  D'lsraeli  (father  of  the  author) 

Mr.  Fitzloom,  Sir  Robert  Peel 

Prince  of  Little  Lilliput,  King  Leopold  of  Belgium 

Beckendorff,  Count  Metternich 

Madame  Carolina,  Lady  Holland 

The  Baroness,  H.  R.  H.  the  Princess  Amelia 

Chief  Writer  in  Attack-All  Review,  Robert  Southey 

Julius  von  Aslingen,  George  Bryan  ("  Beau  ")  Brummell 

Attack-All  Review,  Quarterly  Review 

Praise-All  Review,  Edinburgh  Review 

Dr.  Spittergen,  Dr.  Abernethy 

Von  Chronicle,  M.  de  Sismondi  (author  of  "Julia  Severa") 

Lord  Amehus  Fitzfudge  Boroughby,  Lord  Burghersh 

Colonel  von  Trumpeter,  Marquis  of  Londonderry 

Mrs.  Felix  Lorraine,  Lady  Caroline  Lamb 


^. 


,x 


% 


<fa" 


^ 


J 


's/ 


t> 


the  Principal  Characters 
in  _"  Venetia"  .^^^  .^ 


Lord  Cadurcis,  GeoFge  Gordon  Noel,  Lord  Byron 

Captain  George  Cadurcis,  George  Anson  Byron,  uncle 

of  Lord  Byron 

Mrs.  Cadurcis,  Catherine  Gordon  Byron,  mother 

of  the  poet 

Marmion  Herbert,  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley 

Doctor  Masham,  Bishop  William  Wilberforce 

Lady  Monteagle,  Lady  Jersey 

Venetia,  Clara,  daughter  of  Shelley 


to  the  Principal  Characters 


^ 


in  "Coningsby  "5^ 


Coningsby,  Lord  Littleton 

Rigby,  Right  Hon.  J.  Wilson  Croker,  M.P 

Taper,  Charles  Ross,  Esq. 

Tadpole,  Alexander  Pringle,  Esq.,  M.P. 

Lord  Monmouth,  Lord  Hertford 

The  Duke,  The  Duke  of  Rutland 

Lord  Henry  Sydney,  Lord  John  Manners 


^ 


to  the  Principal  Characters 
in  "Coningsby  "J 


h 


Princess  Colonna,  Lady  Strachan 

Princess  Lucretia,  Madame  Zichy 

Lucian  Gay,  Theodore  Hook 

Mr.  Ormsby,  Quentin  Dick,  Esq.,  M.P. 

Lord  Vere,  Lord  Edward  Howard 

Oswald  Millbank,  Rt.  Hon.  William  E.  Gladstone,  M.P. 

The  Duchess,  Duchess  of  Rutland 

Lord  Fitz-Booby,  Lord  Hartington 

Earwig,  Sir  G.  Clark,  Bart.,  M.P. 

Lord  Rambrooke,  Lord  Rosslyn 

Lord  Everingham,  Earl  of  Clarendon 

Lady  Everingham,  Countess  of  Clarendon 

Lady  Theresa,  Lady  Adeliza  Manners 

Marquess  of  Beaumanoir,  Marquess  of  Granby 

Mr.  Melton,  Hon.  James  Macdonald 

Mr.  G.  O.  A.  Head,  J.  A.  Roebuck,  Esq.,  M.P. 

Mr.  Millbank,  Mark  Phillips,  Esq.,  M.P. 

Edith,  Miss  MacTavish 

Jawster  Sharp,  John  Bright,  Esq.,  M.P. 

The  Russian  Ambassador,  Prince  Lieven 

The  Russian  Ambassadress,  Princess  Lieven 

The  Grand  Duke,  The  Czarowitch  (Alexander  II.) 


^. 


S^ 


? 


to  the  Principal  Characters 
in  "Coningsby  "5^^ 


Lady  St.  Julians,  Lady  Jersey 

Lord  Gaverstock,  Lord  Pollington 

Lady  Gaverstock,  Lady  Pollington 

Villebecque,  M.  Laporte 

Mr.  Guy  Flouncey,  Sir  Charles  Shackerley 

Mrs.  Guy  Flouncey,  Mrs.  Mountjoy  Martm 

Sidonia,  Baron  A.  de  Rothschild  of  Naples  (also  the  Author) 

Mr.  Gingerly  Browne,  Captain  Layard,  M.P. 

Mr.  Juggins,  Sir  F.  Booth 

Sir  Baptist  Placid,  Sir  Eardly  Wilmot 

Hon.  Alberic  de  Crecy,  Hon.  Alberic  Willoughby 

Sir  Joseph  Wallinger,  Sir  William  Clay 

Duchesse  de  G ,  Duchesse  de  Grammont 

Count  M e.  Count  Mole 

Baroness  S.  de  R d,  Baroness  S.  de  Rothschild 


Duke  D- 
Baron  von  H— 


-s.  Due  de  Cases 

-,  Baron  von  Humboldt 


Princesse  de  Petitpoix,  Prmcesse  de  Poix 

Countesse  de  C.  de  E.,  Comtesse  de  Castellane 

Mr.  Cassilis,  George  Wombwell,  Esq. 

Canterton,  Charles  Mills,  Esq. 

Duke  of  Agincourt,  Duke  of  Buckingham  and  Chandos 


^ 


the  Principal  Characters 
in  "Tancred'Vlf 


Tancred,  Lord  Montacute,  The  Author 

Duke  of  Bellamont,  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Duchess  of  Bellamont,  Duchess  of  Norfolk 

Sidonia,  Baron  Lionel  Nathan  de  Rothschild 

Lord  Eskdale,  Lord  Lonsdale 

Lord  Henry  Sydney,  Lord  John  Manners 

Mr.  Coningsby,  Lord  Littleton 

Mr.  Vavasour,  Richard   M.   MilneS  (afterward  Lord  Houghton) 

Mr.  Guy  Flouncey,  Sir  Charles  Shackerley 
Mrs.  Guy  Flouncey,  Mrs.  Mountjoy  Martin 


to  the  Principal  Characters 
in  "Lothair" 


The  Oxford  Professor,  Professor  Goldwin  Smith 
Grandison,  Cardinal  Manning 

Lothair,  Marquis  of  Bute 

Catesby,  Monsignore  Capel 

The  Duke  and  Duchess,  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Abercorn 

The  Bishop,  Bishop  Wilberforce 

Corisande,  Lady  Anne  Hamilton 


^^25 


U' 


KJ 


to  the  Principal  Characters 
in  "Endymion" 


The  Neuchatels,  The  Rothschilds 

Zenobia,  Lady  Jersey 

Berengaria  (Lady  Montfort),  The  Hon.  Mrs.  Norton 

Agrippina,  Queen  Hortense  of  Belgium 

Adriana  Neuchatel,  Lady  Burdett-Coutts 

Colonel  Albert  (Prince  Florestan),  Napoleon  111. 

Lord  Roehampton,  Lord  Palmerston 

Lord  Montfort,  Lord  Hertford 

Lord  Rawchester,  Earl  Granville 

Earl  of  Beaumaris,  Earl  of  Derby 

Mr.  Bertie  Tremaine,  Lord  Houghton  (Richard  Monckton  Milnes) 

Count  of  Ferroll,  Prince  Bismarck 

Endymion,  The  Author 

Nigel  Penruddock,  Cardinal  Wiseman 

Mr.  Ferrars  (the  grandfather),  Right  Hon.  George  Rose 

George  Waldershare,  George  Smythe 

Job  Thornberry,  Richard  Cobden 

Mr.  Vigo,  Mr.  Poole 

Mr.  Jorrocks,  Mr.  Milner  Gibson 

Hortensius,  Sir  W.  Vernon  Harcourt 

Sidney  Wilton,  Sidney  Herbert 

Mr.  St.  Barbe,  William  Makepeace  Thackeray 

Mr.  Gushy,  Charles  Dickens 

Topsy-Turvy,  Vanity  Fair 

Scaramouch,  Punch 


SJO'^-^:^ 


isforicB^l 
Earl  4  ©Gac^nsfiGld,  If  ft 

VIVIAN  GREY 

Heralding,  as  it  were,  Lord  Beaconsfield's  entry  in  the 
arena  of  life,  "  VIVIAN  GREY  "  is  a  trumpet  blast  an- 
nouncing the  procession  of  those  great  ideas  and  ideals 
which,  pursued  with  unfaltering  courage  and  stern 
tenacity,  lifted  the  young  Disraeli  from  obscurity  into  the 
fierce  light  of  universal  renown.  It  is  the  most  extraor- 
dinary novel  ever  penned  by  a  young  man.  It  com- 
bines the  wit  of  a  Rochester  with  the  calm  wisdom  of  a 
Chesterfield.  Its  descriptions  of  high  life  in  London  are 
drawn  upon  to-day  by  those  who  write  of  the  early 
nineteenth  century.  Satire,  sentiment,  politics,  sport,  lit- 
erature, art,  theology — all  ahke  serve  the  writer's  purpose 
in  forming  a  perfect  mosaic  of  the  England  of    1827. 


^ 

^ 


v<->' 


^^pC  The  array  of   characters  notable  in  every  rank  of  life, 

brought  into  the  novel,  staggers  the  reader  as  he  realizes 
the  youth  and,  at  that  time,  the  insignificance  of  the 
author,  and  he  is  impressed  by  the  brilhant  wit,  the  incisive 
argument,  the  lofty  sentiment,  the  caustic  description, 
and  philosophic  reflection  found  in  the  pages  of  the  book. 
That  a  solicitor's  clerk  of  twenty-two  should  be  able  to 
produce  "  Vivian  Grey  "  is  certainly  more  astonishing 
than  that  Dickens,  at  little  more  than  the  same  age, 
should  have  written  "  Pickwick."  Genius  was  wanted 
for  it,  and  the  thing,  when  accomplished,  proved  that 
genius  had  been  at  work.  The  central  figure  is  the 
author  himself  caricaturing  his  own  impertinence  and 
bringing  on  his  head  deserved  retribution  ;  but  the  sar- 
casm, the  strength  of  hand,  the  audacious  personalities 
caught  the  attention  of  the  public,  and  gave  him  at  once 
the  notoriety  he  desired.  "  Vivian  "  was  the  book  of 
the  season  ;  every  one  read  it ;  every  one  talked  about  it, 
and  keys  were  guessed  at  of  the  characters  who  were 
satirized.  Disraeli,  like  Byron,  went  to  sleep  a  nameless 
youth  of  twenty-two,  and  woke  to  find  himself  famous. 


6^^^^ 
^ 


THE  YOUNG  DUKE 

"  The  Young  Duke  "  reveals  Disraeli's  imagination 
skimming  like  a  gorgeous  butterfly  over  the  highly  colored 
sprays  and  flowers  of  the  garden  wherein  he  himself  was 
destined  to  reign  the  undisputed  dispenser  of  destinies. 


t^C/^^^'      ^^^-\)\? 


=5> 


It  paints  the  career  of  a  lofty  English  noble,  who,  intensely 
emotional,  brilliantly  gifted,  but  loving  excitement,  hurls 
himself  into  dissipations  of  the  most  lurid  sort,  but  finally 
realizes  his  responsibility,  and,  tearing  himself  away, 
enters  the  Senate  of  his  peers,  and  by  his  genius  wins  a 
nation's  applause.  Disraeli's  command  of  language  and 
reserve  of  force  are  strikingly  shown  in  the  description  of 
the  great  gambling  scene  in  this  novel.  The  reader 
pauses  and  asks  how  a  youth  of  twenty-five  or  twenty-six 
could  have  seen  enough  of  life  among  the  wealthiest, 
noblest,  and  virtually  the  most  reckless  of  the  land,  to  be 
able  to  paint  word-pictures  such  as  this.  The  story 
proves  that  Disraeli  knew  intuitively  the  land  into  which 
(like  his  ancestors  into  Palestine)  he  was  destined  to 
break,  and  in  which  he  was  to  reign  supreme.  About 
this  time  Nathaniel  P.  Willis,  the  American  writer,  met 
Disraeli.  James  Anthony  Froude  has  preserved  Willis' 
description  of  the  budding  genius : 

"  He  was  sitting  in  a  window  looking  on  Hyde  Park, 
the  last  rays  of  sunlight  reflected  from  the  gorgeous  gold 
flowers  of  a  splendidly  embroidered  waistcoat.  Patent 
leather  pumps,  a  white  stick  with  a  black  cord  and  tas- 
sel, and  a  quantity  of  chains  about  his  neck  and  pockets, 
served  to  make  him  a  conspicuous  object.  He  has  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  faces  I  ever  saw.  He  is  lividly 
pale,  and  but  for  the  energy  of  his  action  and  the  strength 
of  his  lungs  would  seem  to  be  a  victim  of  consumption. 


r^ 


^' 


^ 


A 


I  '^'■1-^ 


<^>-\ 


His  eye  is  black  as  Erebus,  and  has  the  most  mocking, 
lying-m-wait  sort  of  expression  conceivable.  His  mouth 
is  alive  with  a  kind  of  w^orking  and  impatient  nervous- 
ness; and  vv^hen  he  burst  forth,  as  he  does  constantly, 
with  a  particularly  successful  cataract  of  expression,  it 
assumes  a  curl  of  triumphant  scorn  that  would  be  worthy 
of  Mephistopheles.  His  hair  is  as  extraordinary  as  his 
taste  in  waistcoats.  A  thick,  heavy  mass  of  ]et-black 
ringlets  falls  on  his  left  cheek  almost  to  his  collarless 
stock,  and  on  the  right  temple  it  is  parted  and  put  away 
with  the  smooth  carefulness  of  a  girl.  I  might  as  well 
attempt  to  gather  up  the  foam  of  the  sea  as  to  convey  an 
idea  of  the  extraordinary  language  in  which  he  clothed 
his  conversation.  He  talked  hke  a  race-horse  approach- 
ing the  winning-post,  every  muscle  in  action." 

IXION  IN  HEAVEN 

"  IXION  IN  Heaven  "  is  a  most  amusing  account  of 
the  hero's  intrigue  with  Juno,  the  Queen  of  Heaven, 
and  of  Jove's  eternal  vengeance.  It  contains  a  droll 
mingling  of  earthly  foibles,  celestial  etiquette,  and  sly  al- 
lusions to  Disraeli's  own  ambitions ;  and  the  characters 
of  the  Olympian  courtiers  and  goddesses  are  laughably 
conceived  and  described.  It  is  a  satire  of  the  most 
delicate  type,  but  the  shafts  are  direct  and  reach  the 
mark.  A  distinguished  literary  critic  says  of  this  charm- 
ing piece  of  drollery  :    "  The   form  and  tone   are    like 


-A>\y'^    ^'^  "^w^ 


<;> 


Lucian's,  and  the  execution  almost  as  good.  No  char- 
acters in  real  life  are  more  vivid  than  those  he  draw^s  of 
the  high-bred  divmities  at  the  court  of  the  father  of  the 
gods,  w^hile  the  Father  himself  is  George  IV.,  Apollo  is 
Byron,  and  the  ladies  are  well-known  ornaments  of  the 
circles  of  the  Olympians  of  May  Fair." 


U^ 


ic 


^^*^ 


THE  RISE  OF  ISKANDER 

"  The  Rise  of  ISKANDER  "  gives  rein  to  Disraeli's 
splendor  of  imagination.  Moslem  magnificence  and 
bloodthirstiness,  the  struggles  oi  the  Cross  and  Crescent, 
with  the  kaleidoscopic  change  and  varied  fortunes  of  the 
Orient  as  a  background,  are  portrayed  with  the  touch  of 
one  who  knew  whereof  he  wrote.  The  romance  shows 
a  subjugated  race  suddenly  free  from  its  masters.  As 
he  wrote  it,  Disraeli  must  have  thought  of  his  own  peo- 
ple and  realised  the  yearnings  for  a  national  existence 
that  have  sustained  them  since  the  Dispersion.  "  The 
Holy  Land,  as  the  seat  of  his  own  race,  affected  his 
imagination.  He  had  a  romantic  side  in  his  mind  in  a 
passion  for  Jerusalem.  His  intellect  had  been  molded 
by  the  sceptical  philosophy  of  his  fathers  ;  but,  let  sceptics 
say  what  they  would,  a  force  which  had  gone  out  from 
Jerusalem  had  governed  the  fate  of  the  modern  world." 


:c?- 


^^ 


LORD  GEORGE  BENTINCK 

When  a  biography  of  Lord  George  Bentinck,  Bea- 
consfield's  colleague  in  Parliament,  was  projected,  the 
latter  was  hailed  as  the  one  man  fitted  for  the  task. 
The  result  was,  according  to  Froude,  "  the  most  brilliant 
political  biography  ever  penned  by  the  hand  of  man." 
The  biography,  in  touching  on  Lord  George's  attitude 
toward  the  Jewish  Disabilities  Bill,  contains  a  ringing 
chapter  on  the  Jews,  as  irresistible  a  demand  for  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  Separate  People  as  the  mind  of  man 
ever  conceived.  Indeed,  while  the  Zionist  movement 
had  not  at  that  time  crystallized  into  its  present  form, 
Disraeli  may  be  looked  on  as  a  pioneer,  in  that  he 
wrought  successfully  against  fierce  and  sustained  opposi- 
tion to  relieve  his  race  of  those  political  hindrances  under 
which  they  had  for  centuries  labored.  Froude  declares 
that  "  to  the  student  of  the  parliamentary  history  of  those 
times,  the  book  is  of  immense  value. " 


CONTARINI  FLEMING 

•'  CONTARINl  Fleming  "  contains  tales  of  adventure 
so  romantic,  and  descriptions  of  travel  and  scenery  so 
gorgeous,  that  the  great  Goethe  hastened  to  send  glowing 
eulogies  and  congratulations  to  the  author,  while  Dean 
Milman  compared  it  to  "  Childe  Harold."  and  hailed 
Disraeli  as  a  second  Byron.     Above  and  beyond  this, 


Sj^^^^ 


<^(^ 


in  the  career  of  Contarini   Fleming  can  be  traced  the 
thorny  path  Disraeli  himself  was  to  pursue,     it  lifts  the 
curtain  from  the  political  life  of  the  England  of  the  'thir- 
ties, revealing  ambitions  still-born,  ambitions  doomed  to 
early  death,  ambitions  that  o'erleaped  themselves,  and 
ambitions  that  bore  the  glorious  fruit  of  the  years  from 
1 860-80.     It  reveals  too  the  marvelous  patience  and 
self-control  of  its  author  in  that  significant  passage  where 
Contarini  and  his  companions  are  requested,  as  a  memo- 
rial of  their  journey,  to  write  upon  the  wall  some  sen- 
tence   expressive  of  each    writer.     But  one  word    did 
Contarini    write — that   word    was  "  Time."      "  Disraeli 
wanted  no  spurring.     He  worked  for  twelve    hours  a 
day  at  his  studies,  conscious  that  he  had  singular  powers 
and  passionately  ambitious  to  make  use  of  them.      The       ^  ^^ 
purpose  that  lay  behind  his  exterior  was  as  little  suspected 
by  those  who  saw  him  in  the  world  as  the  energy  with 
which  he  was  always  working  in  his  laborious  hours. 
The  stripling  of  seventeen  was  the  same  person  as  the 
statesman  of  seventy,  with  this  difference  only — that  the 
affectation  which  was  natural  in  the  boy  was  itself  af- 
fected in  the  mature  politician,  whom  it  served  well  as  a 
mask  or  as  a  suit  of  impenetrable  armour"  (Meynell). 


'j 


^.7^ 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  COUNT 
ALARCOS 

"The  Tragedy  of  Count  Alarcos"  is 

founded  on  a  celebrated  Spanish  ballad,  and  deals  with 
the  turbulent  amours  and  quarrels  of  the  Castilian  nobles 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Disraeli  came  of  the  Sephar- 
dim — the  wealthy,  polished,  and  aristocratic  Jews  of  the 
Spain  and  Portugal  of  1200-1350 — and  it  was  natural 
that  in  this  essay  in  tragic  drama  he  should  choose  a 
field  pregnant  with  the  bygone  glories  of  his  race.  How 
the  theme  and  scene  appealed  to  him  is  witnessed  by 
the  language  of  the  play,  which  rises  to  heights  of  pas- 
sion rarely  met  in  literature. 


POPANILLA 

"  POPANILLA  "  is  a  magnificent  satire  upon  the  people, 
manners,  and  customs  of  Great  Britain,  mirth-provoking 
to  a  degree.  Disraeli's  powers  of  sarcasm  and  ridicule 
were  unrivalled,  yet  it  is  said  he  never  incurred  the  en- 
mity of  those  he  satirised,  for  they  were  compelled  to 
laugh  with  their  castigator.  Hence  people  called  him  a 
second  Dean  Swift,  but  a  Swift  without  malice.  The 
chief  interest  is  in  the  light  which  is  thrown  on  Disraeli's 
studies  of  English   politics.      The  chapter  on  ' '  Fruit  "  is 


•v^y  ">--' 


<^(^ 


a  humorously  correct  sketch  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
Mr.  Flummery  Flum  represents  political  economy,  and  the 
picture  of  him  betrays  Disraeli's  contempt  for  that  once 
celebrated  science,  now  relegated  to  the  exterior  planets. 
"  Popanilla  "  can  be  read  with  intense  pleasure  as  a  mere 
work  of  fancy.  It  has  a  still  more  serious  value  to  the 
student  of  Disraeli's  character. 


'iy 


.0^ 


ALROY 

"  ALROY,"  a  picturesque  Oriental  romance  of  the 
days  of  the  Hebrew  Captivity,  has  for  its  hero  a  Prince 
of  the  Captivity  in  the  twelfth  century.  This  great  ro- 
mance was  written  in  Palestine,  and  shows  the  Oriental 
splendor  of  Disraeh's  imagination.  Southey's  "  Thalaba  " 
cannot  be  compared  in  vividness  of  coloring  to  "  Alroy," 
and  though  the  supernatural  is  introduced,  the  inherent 
power  of  the  tale  carries  the  reader  through  the  most 
startling  scenes  without  a  falter.  Beckford,  the  author 
of  "  Vathek,"  declared  the  tale  to  be  full  of  the  most 
intense  and  startlingly  original  thought.  It  presents, 
broadly,  plainly,  and  unmistakably,  the  possibilities  of 
a  Jewish  national  rebirth.  There  the  harp  of  Judea  led 
captive  is  waked  again  in  the  hope  that  the  throbbing 
chords  may  prove  as  potent  as  of  old   to   rouse  the  heart 


'  ^\y 


and  energies  of  the  Dispersed  and  bring  them  to  their  own. 
At  its  pubhcation  eminent  critics  were  lavish  of  their 
praise,  but  they  only  expressed  the  general  opinion. 
The  literary  world  acknowledged  that  a  new  star  had 
appeared,  and  Disraeli  was  established  in  the  first 
rank  of  writers. 


THE  INFERNAL  MARRIAGE 

"The  Infernal  Marriage"  is  a  sweeping  sat- 
ire on  the  modern  fashion  of  women  "marrying  for  an 
establishment."  It  is  founded  on  the  mythological  tale 
of  Proserpine  and  Pluto,  and  its  description  of  society  in 
Elysium  is  another  of  those  caricatures  of  London  high 
life,  its  luxuries,  its  idle  existence,  and  numerous  scan- 
dals, that  Disraeli  excelled  in.  The  occupation  of  the 
Elysians  was  to  go  to  operas  and  plays  and  balls,  to 
wander  in  the  green  shades  of  the  forest,  to  canter  over  0^1, 
breezy  downs,  to  banquet  with  the  beautiful  and  the 
witty,  to  send  care  to  the  devil  and  indulge  the  whim  of 
the  moment.  It  was  easy  to  see  who  were  meant  by  the 
Elysians ;  privileged  mortals  they  might  be,  but  mortals 
out  of  whom,  unless  they  roused  themselves,  no  future 
rulers  would  ever  rise  to  govern  again  the  English  nation. 
The  Emperor  Julian  imagined  that  he  could  galvanize 


% 


the  dead  gods  of  paganism  ;  Disraeli,  believing  that  an 
aristocracy  of  some  kind  was  a  political  necessity,  here 
dreamed  of  an  awakening  of  the  young  generation  of 
Enghsh  nobles  to  the  heroic  virtues  of  the  age  of  the 
Plantagenets. 

CONINGSBY 

"  CONINGSBY  "  is  not  only  Disraeli's  greatest  political 
novel,  but  the  greatest  histoncal  novel  in  English  litera- 
ture. Its  purpose  was  to  declare  the  right  of  the 
"  Young  England  "  clique,  fathered  by  Disraeli,  to  be 
both  a  popular  and  a  nationally  recognised  party.  The 
story  arrested  attention  at  once.  To  quote  Froude's 
marvelous  analysis: 

"  '  Coningsby  :  or,  The  New  Generation  '  carried 
its  meaning  m  its  title.  If  England  was  to  be  saved  by 
its  aristocracy,  the  aristocracy  must  alter  their  ways. 
The  existing  representatives  of  the  order  had  grown  up 
in  self-indulgence  and  social  exclusiveness — some  excel- 
lent, a  few  vicious,  but  all  isolated  from  the  inferior  ranks, 
and  all  too  old  to  mend.  The  hope,  if  hope  there  was, 
had  to  be  looked  for  in  their  sons.  '  Coningsby'  is  put 
together  with  extreme  skill.  We  have  pictures  of  fash- 
ionable society,  gay  and  giddy,  such  as  no  writer  ever 
described  better ;  peers,  young,  middle-aged,  and  old, 
good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  the  central  figure  a  profligate 


w 


W 


Jfit 


§^ 


old  noble  of  immense  fortune,  whose  person  is  easily 
recognised,  and  whose  portrait  is  also  preserved  by 
Thackeray.  Besides  these,  there  are  intriguing  or  fasci- 
nating ladies,  political  hacks,  country  gentlemen,  mill- 
owners,  and  occasionally  wise  outsiders,  gazing  upon  the 
chaos  and  delivering  oracular  interpretations  or  prophe- 
cies. The  story  opens  at  Eton,  which  Disraeh  describes 
with  an  insight  astonishing  in  a  writer  who  had  no  ex- 
perience of  English  public  school  life,  and  with  a  fond- 
ness which  confesses  how  much  he  had  lost  in  the 
substitutes  to  which  he  had  been  himself  condemned. 
There  Coningsby  makes  acquaintance  with  the  high- 
born youth  who  are  to  be  his  companions  m  the  great 
world  that  is  to  follow,  then  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  de- 
lightful present,  and  brimming  with  enthusiastic  ambitions. 
They  accompany  each  other  to  their  fathers'  castles,  and 
schemes  are  meditated  and  begun  for  their  future  ca- 
reers ;  Disraeli  letting  fall,  as  he  goes  on,  his  own  pohtical 
opinions,  and  betraying  his  evident  disbelief  in  existing 
Conservatism,  and  in  its  then  all-powerful  leader.  Con- 
ingsby found  that  he  was  born  in  an  age  of  infidelity  in 
all  things,  and  his  heart  assured  him  that  a  want  of  faith 
was  a  want  of  nature.  He  asked  himself  why  govern- 
ments were  hated  and  religions  despised,  why  loyalty 
was  dead  and  reverence  only  a  galvanised  corpse.  He 
had  found  age  perplexed  and  desponding,  manhood  cal- 


m 


m. 


lous  and  desperate.  Some  thought  that  systems  would 
last  their  time,  others  that  something  would  turn  up. 
His  deep  and  pious  spirit  recoiled  with  disgust  and  hor- 
ror from  lax  chance  and  medley  maxims  that  would,  m 
their  consequence,  reduce  men  to  the  level  of  brutes. 

"  Conmgsby's  study  of  the  social  problem  carries  him 
to  Manchester,  where  he  hears  the  views  entertained  in 
the  industrial  circles  regarding  the  English  aristocracy. 
'  An  aristocracy  cannot  exist,  unless  it  is  distinguished 
by  some  quality  which  no  other  class  of  the  community 
possesses.  Distinction  is  the  basis  of  aristocracy.  If 
you  permit  only  one  class  of  the  population,  for  example, 
to  bear  arms,  they  are  an  aristocracy ;  not  much  to  my 
taste,  but  still  a  great  fact.  That,  however,  is  not  the 
characteristic  of  the  English  peerage.  I  have  yet  to 
leam  that  they  are  richer  than  we  are,  better  informed, 
or  more  distinguished  for  public  and  private  virtues. 
Ancient  lineage !  I  never  heard  of  a  peer  with  an  an- 
cient lineage.  The  real  old  famihes  of  the  country  are 
to  be  found  among  the  peasantry.  The  gentry  too  may 
lay  claim  to  old  blood  :  1  know  of  some  Norman  gentle- 
men whose  fathers  undoubtedly  came  in  with  the  Con- 
queror. But  a  peer  with  an  ancient  lineage  is  to  me 
quite  a  novelty.  The  thirty  years'  Wars  of  the  Roses 
freed  us  from  these  gentlemen,  I  take  it.  After  the  battle 
of  Tewkesbury  a  Norman  baron  was  almost  as  rare  a 


i'/^. 


being  as  a  wolf.  .  .  .  We  owe  the  English  peerage  to 
three  sources — the  spoliation  of  the  Church,  the  open 
and  flagrant  sale  of  its  honours  by  the  elder  Stuarts,  and 
the  borough-mongering  of  our  own  times.  These  are 
the  three  main  sources  of  the  existing  peerages  of  Eng- 
land, and  in  my  opinion  disgraceful  ones.' 

"The  Hebrew  financier  is  represented  very  much  in 
the  position  of  Disraeli  himself,  half  a  foreigner  and  an  im- 
partial onlooker,  with  keen  interest  in  the  stability  of  Eng- 
ish  institutions,  but  with  the  insight  possible  only  to  an 
outsider,  who  observes  without  inherited  prepossessions. 
Sidonia,  the  original  of  whom  is  as  easily  recognised,  is, 
like  Disraeli,  of  Spanish  descent.  His  father  staked  all 
that  he  was  worth  on  the  Waterloo  loan,  became  the 
greatest  capitalist  in  Europe,  and  bequeathed  his  business 
and  his  fortune  to  his  son.  Though  Sidonia  is  chiefly 
drawn  from  another  person,  Disraeli  himself  can  be  traced 
in  the  description  of  his  character.  The  hand  is  the 
hand  of  Esau  ;  the  voice  is  the  voice  of  Jacob.  '  The 
secret  history  of  the  world  was  Sidonia's  pastime.'  '  His 
great  pleasure  was  to  contrast  the  hidden  motive  with 
the  public  pretext  of  transactions.'  This  was  Disraeli 
himself,  and  through  Sidonia's  mouth  Disraeli  explains  to 
Coningsby  the  political  condition  of  England." 

Whigs  and  Tories  alike  were  stung  by  the  merciless 
satire  of    this    novel.     Even  "  Punch "    drew    from    its 


36 


m 


pages.  Three  large  editions  were  called  for  in  three 
months,  and  50,000  copies  were  sold  in  America  alone. 
The  key  to  this  novel  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of 
famous  persons  introduced.  The  present  Conservative 
regime  in  England  found  its  protonascence  in  "  Con- 
mgsby,"  which  bears  the  distinction  of  being  the  only 
novel  that  has  founded  a  party  and  created  a  policy  of 
lasting  usefulness  and  renown. 

HENRIETTA  TEMPLE 

A  passionate  love  tale — Disraeli's  description  of  ro- 
mantic love  as  he  conceived  or  felt  it.  His  final  idea 
of  man's  love  for  woman  is  that  of  reverent  tenderness. 
To  him  she  is  the  symbol  of  a  great  idea,  a  higher, 
more  representative  being  than  man.  He  deduces,  too, 
that  there  is  no  real  love  save  that  which  springs  into 
full  flower  at  first  sight ;  and  that  love  is  the  one  power 
sufficient  m  itself  to  make  man  capable  of  the  greatest 
deeds.  The  story  is  the  most  dehcate  of  romances,  the 
most  fervent  of  idealizations,  and  explains  perhaps  the 
happiness  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  own  married  life.  The 
seeming  disparity  of  age  between  himself  and  the  lady 
he  wedded  was  nothing  in  the  light  of  such  knightly 
faith,  and  the  pedestal  reared  for  Henrietta  Temple  by 
Ferdinand  Armine  became  the  shrine  at  which  the 
writer  subsequently  kneeled.      Says  a  well-known  critic  : 


^-^. 


"  Disraeli's  novels  had  each  been  brilliant,  but  not  until 
now  had  he  touched  the  chords  of  deep  and  enduring 
feeling  or  the  most  delicate  of  emotions." 

VENETIA 

"  VENETIA "  shows  that  Disraeli,  had  he  chosen, 
might  have  become  one  of  the  world's  great  poets. 
Byron  and  Shelley  are  the  leading  characters  in  the  tale, 
which  contains  the  most  exquisite  lyrics  as  well  as  vivid 
word-pictures  of  continental  scenery  and  adventure  that 
for  local  color  and  truth  are  without  parallel  in  literature. 
The  criticisms  to  which  Disraeli  was  at  first  subjected 
for  the  portraiture  of  two  great  poets,  so  recently  m  life 
disappeared  before  the  charm  of  the  romance  and  the 
stirring  adventures  related  in  it.  "  This  book  alone 
would  have  made  the  reputation  of  an  ordinary  writer," 
is  the  declaration  of  an  emment  critic  of  that  day. 

THE  RUNNYMEDE  LETTERS 

"  THE  RUNNYMEDE  LETTERS  "  are  a  series  of  mag- 
nificent philippics  against  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  party. 
They  appeared  at  intervals  in  the  London  "  Times  "  in 
the  spring  of  1 836,  the  year  before  Disraeh's  election  as 
junior  member  for  Maidstone,  and  are  striking  examples 
of  his  power  of  invective,  of  his  peculiar  faculty  of  coin- 


ing  phrases  that  remain  in  the  memory,  and  of  his  genius 
for  ridicule.  The  "Letters  of  Junius"  do  not  excel  them 
in  the  powerful  analyses  of  public  questions  they  contam. 
"  These  Letters  brought  Disraeli  election  to  that  tem- 
ple of  Toryism,  the  Carlton  Club,  and  when  the  news- 
papers abused  him  he  retorted  by  quoting  his  prototype 
in  sarcasm.  Swift,  to  the  effect  that  the  appearance  of  a 
man  of  genius  is  known  by  the  immediate  and  wordy 
virulence  of  dunces. 

SYBIL 

"  Sybil,"  the  greatest  labor  novel  ever  written,  is  even 
more  remarkable  than  its  forerunners,  but  in  a  different 
way.  The  sub-title,  "  The  Two  Nations,"  is  Disraeli's 
way  of  distinguishing  the  rich  from  the  poor.  Before 
writing  this  story  (which  he  dedicated,  in  touching  terms, 
to  his  wife),  Disraeli  studied  human  conditions  at  first 
hand  in  the  manufactunng  towns  of  England.  He  saw 
the  workman  now  prospering,  now  starving.  He  de- 
tected the  frauds  and  tyrannies  of  the  middle-man  ;  he 
found  hatred,  anarchy,  and  incendiarism,  and  was  not 
afraid  to  draw  the  lurid  picture  in  the  unadulterated 
colours  of  truth.  The  delineation  of  manufacturing  con- 
ditions in  this  tale  is  vivid  and  picturesquely  strong,  and 
there  are  thunderous  passages  of  denunciation  that  re- 
mind one  of  Lassalle,  as   well  as  descriptions  here  and 


there  that  recall  Charles  Reade  in  his  most  scathing 
mood  against  crying  wrongs.  The  book  was  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  Chartist  agitation,  and  to  any  one  wishing 
to  know  the  state  of  England's  manufacturing  districts 
during  that  time  of  stress  and  storm,  no  more  valuable 
or  pertinent  guide  could  be  given.  Listen  to  FVoude : 
"  In  Mowbray  the  inhabitants  were  losing  the  elemen- 
tary virtues  of  humanity.  Factory-girls  deserted  their 
parents  and  left  them  to  starve,  preferring  an  independ- 
ence of  vice  and  folly  ;  mothers  farmed  out  their  chil- 
dren at  threepence  a  week,  to  be  got  rid  of  in  a  month  or 
two  by  laudanum  and  treacle.  Disraeli  was  startled  to 
find  that  mfanticide  was  practised  as  extensively  and 
legally  as  it  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  It  is 
the  same  to-day ;  occasional  revelations  lift  the  curtain 
and  show  it  as  active  as  ever ;  famiharity  has  led  us  to 
look  upon  it  as  inevitable  ;  the  question.  What  is  to  be 
done  with  the  swarms  of  children  multiplying  in  our 
towns  ?  admitting  at  present  of  no  moral  solution." 

With  some  elaboration,  Disraeli  describes  the  human 
creatures  bred  in  such  places  which  were  growing  up  to 
take  the  place  of  the  old  English.  "  Devilsdust  having 
survived  a  baby-farm  by  toughness  of  constitution,  and 
the  weekly  threepence  ceasing  on  his  mother's  death, 
was  turned  into  the  streets  to  starve  or  to  be  run  over. 

"  The  child  is  taken  in,  not  out  of  charity,  but  be- 


cause  an  imp  of  such  a  kind  happens  to  be  wanted,  and 
Devildust  grows  up  naturally  a  dangerous  member  of 
society.  But  was  there  ever  a  more  horrible  picture 
drawn  ?  It  is  like  a  chapter  of  Isaiah  in  Cockney  novel- 
ist dress." 

SELECTED    SPEECHES 

The  "SELECTED  SPEECHES"  afford  a  glance  at 
Disraeli  at  the  morn,  noon,  and  eve  of  his  parliamentary 
career.  They  explain  the  reason  why,  after  the  first  memo- 
rable scene  in  the  House  of  Commons,  no  speaker  was 
ever  listened  to  with  more  studied  attention.  The  ge- 
nius for  detail,  for  the  marshaling  of  facts,  for  rapid  yet 
clear  presentation,  for  disposing  of  antagonistic  arguments 
with  rapier-hke  thrusts  of  sarcasm,  and  for  effective  per- 
oration are  all  apparent.  Disraeh  as  a  phrase-maker 
will  live  as  long  as  England  boasts  a  literature.  A 
great  and  persistent  opponent  said  of  his  oratory  :  "  He 
was  the  strongest  member  of  Parliament  in  his  own  day, 
and  it  was  Parliament  which  took  him  as  its  foremost 
man  and  made  him  what  he  was.  No  one  fought  more 
stoutly  when  there  was  fighting  to  be  done  ;  no  one 
knew  better  when  to  yield,  or  how  to  encourage  his  fol- 
lowers. He  was  a  master  of  debate.  He  had  perfect 
command  of  his  temper,  and  while  he  ran  an  adversary 
through  the  body  he  charmed  even  his  enemies  by  the 
skill  with  which  he  did  it." 


TANCRED 


'M 


^ 


"  TANCRED  "  was  esteemed  by  Disraeli  himself  to  be 
his  greatest  novel.  In  it  he  still  indulges  m  dreams  of  a 
regenerate  aristocracy.  It  is  ironic,  yet  deeply  mystic. 
Its  wit,  its  brilliant  Oriental  scenes,  its  dramatic  dialogues, 
dwell  ineffaceably  in  the  memory.  It  comprises,  too,  Dis- 
raeli's whole  field  of  vision,  ranging  from  graphic  pic- 
tures of  fashionable  life  to  scenes  of  the  deepest  religious 
pathos  and  portent,  and  to  the  most  tremendous  political 
schemes.  It  is  also  a  complete  revelation  of  Disraeli  the 
Jew,  as  well  as  of  Disraeli  in  his  attitude  toward  that 
"  wider  Judaism  "  which  he  termed  Christianity — a 
revelation  which  is  repeated  in  a  more  condensed  form 
in  the  wonderful  essay  on  the  Jews  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  author's  "  Biography  of  Lord  George  Bentinck."  It 
also  reveals  Disraeli's  racial  patriotism,  a  patriotism  which, 
though  he  professed  Christianity,  always  proclaimed 
Christianity's  debt  to  Judaism.  Could  the  aristocracy 
of  England  have  been  molded  upon  the  ideals  pictured 
and  yearned  for  by  Tancred,  the  millennium  would  be 
an  accomplished  fact.  "  He  saw  that  they  had  noble 
qualities,  but  they  wanted  the  inspiration  of  a  genuine 
religious  belief.  Tancred,  the  only  child  and  heir  of  a 
ducal  family,  is  an  enthusiastic  and  thoughtful  youth 
with    aspirations    after  excellence.     He   is   a  descend- 


ant  of  the  Crusaders,  and  his  mind  turns  back  to  the 
land  which  was  the  birthplace  of  his  nominal  creed. 
There  alone  the  Maker  of  the  universe  had  held  direct 
communication  with  man.  There  alone  would  He  com- 
municate with  his  creature  again.  Chnstian  Europe 
still  regarded  the  Israehtes  as  the  chosen  people.  Half  of 
it  still  worshiped  a  Jew  and  the  other  half  a  Jewess. 
But  between  criticism  and  science  and  materialism,  the 
behef  which  lingered  in  form  had  lost  its  commanding 
power.  Before  the  diseases  of  society  could  be  cured 
the  creed  must  be  restored  to  its  pristine  authority." 

LOTHAIR 

"  LOTHAIR "  is  the  only  novel  by  Disraeli  in  which 
he  himself  does  not  designedly  appear.  The  students  of 
English  history,  in  time  to  come,  who  would  know  what 
England's  nobles  were  m  the  days  of  Victoria,  will  read 
"  Lothair "  with  the  same  intense  interest  with  which 
they  read  Horace  and  Juvenal.  Here  Disraeli  paints 
the  English  aristocracy  at  the  zenith  of  their  splendor. 
They  stand  before  the  reader  in  all  the  magnificence  of 
their  virtues  and  their  follies.  "  The  industrial  energy  of 
the  age  had  doubled  their  already  princely  revenues 
without  effort  of  their  own.  They  were  the  objects  of 
universal  homage — partly  a  vulgar  adulation  of  rank, 
partly  the  traditionary  reverence  for  their  order,  which 


had  not  yet  begun  to  wane.  Though  idleness  and  flattery 
had  done  their  work  to  spoil  them,  they  retained  many 
of  the  characteristics  of  a  high-born  race.  Even  Car- 
lyle  thought  they  were  the  best  survivmg  specimens  of 
the  ancient  English.  But  their  self-indulgence  had  ex- 
panded with  their  incomes.  Compared  with  the  manners 
of  the  modern  palace  or  castle,  the  habits  of  their  grand- 
fathers and  grandmothers  had  been  frugality  and  simpli- 
city ;  and  they  had  no  duties,  or  none  which  they  had 
been  taught  to  understand.  So  they  stand  before  us  in 
'  Lothair.'  Those  whom  Elysian  pleasures  could  not 
satisfy  grew  weary  of  the  rolling  hours,  and  for  want  of 
occupation  are  seen  drifting  among  the  seductions  of  the 
Reman  harlot ;  while  from  below  the  surface  is  heard 
the  deep  ground-tone  of  European  revolution,  which  may 
sweep  them  all  away."  Not  the  theme  of  politics  pure 
and  simple  is  here  presented,  but  politics  as  dominated 
by  Protestant  or  Roman  Cathohc  dogma.  Just  as  the 
great  Jewish  composer  Meyerbeer  has  set  to  immortal 
music  the  internecine  political  strife  of  Huguenot  and 
Catholic,  which  culminated  in  the  Massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew,  so  a  later  and  a  greater  compatriot  has 
left  in  "  Lothair  "  a  living  picture  of  politico-theologic 
conflict  in  the  England  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


5V^> 


DISRAELI'S  LETTERS  TO  HIS  SISTER 

These  Letters  are  fascinating  glimpses  of  Disraeli's  esti- 
mate of  himself,  and  of  his  life  during  the  years  in  which 
he  was  slowly  mounting  to  an  assured  position  in  the 
world  of  politics,  literature,  and  fashion.  The  cheery, 
undaunted  spirit  he  displays  under  rebuffs,  the  joyousness 
he  exhibits  at  the  slightest  success,  the  ambition,  the 
affectionate  style — all  serve  to  form  a  composite  picture 
of  the  writer  that  is  vivid,  pleasant,  and  enduring. 

ENDYMION 

"  ENDYMION,"  the  swan  song,  so  to  speak,  of  Lord 
Beaconslield's  marvelous  career,  was  half  written  when 
the  Conservative  leader  assumed  office  in  1 874.  There 
are  dual  portraits  of  the  author  in  it,  in  the  characters 
of  Endymion  and  Myra.  All  the  characters  are  easily 
recognizable  among  the  great  personages  of  that  day. 
The  key  to  them  is  a  perfect  galaxy  of  names  that  will 
never  die,  Endymion's  career  might  be  taken  as  an  au- 
tobiography of  the  writer,  and  the  pictures  of  English 
life  in  the  politics  and  the  society  of  1  874-80  are  invalu- 
able. "  The  book  is  full  of  the  author's  characteristic  epi- 
grams, and  is  an  epitome  of  the  great  Earl's  pohtical  phi- 
losophy. It  possesses  the  calm  mastery  of  modern  hfe, 
the  survey,  wide  as  the  world,  of  modern  political  and 


social  forces,  the  mellow  and  impartial  wisdom  which  in- 
vests Disraeh's  historical  romances  with  the  value  that 
endures."  Lord  Beaconsfield  received  $50,000  for  the 
manuscript. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  THE 
SERIES 

The  Bibliography  appears  in  chronological  form  for  the 
first  time,  it  reveals  a  capacity  for  work  and  a  versa- 
tility of  resource  that  help  to  explain  the  hold  Disraeli 
had  upon  the  world  of  politics  and  letters — professions 
rarely  successfully  united.  After  compilation  by  the 
editorial  staff,  it  was  submitted  to  Lord  Rowton  (who 
for  years,  as  Montagu  Corry,  was  the  confidential  secre- 
tary and  friend  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield)  and  was  re- 
vised by  him  some  four  months  before  his  death  in  1 903. 


ortraits  wrfh 

.  biographies 


P^  of  the 


e 


who  appear  in  the 

Historical  Romances 
of  the 
rl  of 


LESSINGTO: 

Marglierite,  Countes^s 
of,  authorj^89-i849. 
ler  wit  and 
especial 
friend  of  Lord  Byron 
and  Count  D'Orsay, 
Iso  of  Disraeli,  who 
ves  her  the  pecuHar 
i\aVne  of  Lady 

oVbtful  in  "Vivian 
Gi\« 


^^>££L^  ^.Rrnsignor, 
1836,  private 
fberlain  to  Pius 
,X.,  Rector  of  the 
:  University 
,  London,  and 
of  the  Catholic 
)ol  at 

He  is 
by  Catesbv 


li,  Sir  Robert, 
statesman,  1788-1850. 
Cnief  Secretary  for 
Ireland  in  1812, 
HDrAe  Secretary  in 
i8p2l  Prime  Minister 
in  li8ki.      He  figures 
m  Y  V\vian  Grey"  as 
Mr\  Fitzloom. 


invt^OLDT,. 

Alexal^tder,  Baron, 
German'^  scientist  and 

iveleAY'ij69-i8  59. 

istingui^'hed  for  his 
profound  itesearches 
and  discQV.^ies  in 
zoology  ai|d\^      C/ 
geographly       ^^^^^^^ 
Describ^d/simply  as 

Baron  vbA  H in 

"ConingsBy." 


EMAN,  Nicholas 
ick  Stephen, 
inal-Archbishop 
estminster, 
1865.      His 
claimed  descent 
apel  Wiseman, 
a  Prfot^stant  bishop 
in  the  rime  of  Henry 
Vnt.     vHe  figures  as 
Nigel  Penruddock  in 
"  End^ 


^ 


ISMAR€K,(g|tto 

Eduard  (Leopold, 
Prince  v^^>n7  German 
statesmain,  1 8  i]5-i  898. 
Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  i8( 

r^Htedrrince  and 
Chancellor,  1871. 
©israeli  introduces 
him  into  Endymion 
as  Prince  Ferriole. 


cretary 
for  War  tw^n\v  years; 
afterward  Kirs tK  Lord 
f  the  TPreasuryVand 
nal'     " 
ister. 
author  has^  named  him 
Lord  Hoehampton  in 
ymion." 


E^^TERN^CH, 

I^rihce  Richi^d, 

listrian  diplpmat, 
i'8!29-i895.   /  1 
mbassadoi/    I 
^le^nipoteptiary  to 

1859  to 
li^o.      Frien'd  of 
NaVoleon  lyl.     He  is 
theVily  BetkendorfF 
ViViW  Grey."- 


IN, 
'elle^ley, 
jgeneral  and 
1769-1852. 
of  many 
::^mpaigns, 
cijnong  which 
was  Waterloo  in  1815. 
The  aumor  calls  him 
the  Duke  of  Waterloo 
in  "Vivian  Grey." 


TJUTHhy,  Robert, 
pT^^t-kwfeate,  i  774- 
5^840.      Author  of"  A 
Vision  of  Judgment." 
AllWkd  to  onlv  as  the 


TTS, 

wife  of  Thomas 
outts,  founder  of  the 
nking-house  of 
tts  &  Company. 
Before  marriage  she 
was  lan  actress,  known 
as  Harriet  Mellon. 
Her\second  husband 
was  tnd  Duke  of  St. 
Albans.l     She  appears 
as  MrB.|Million  in 
"  Vivian  Grey." 


ORTSCHAKOFF, 

Prince  Alexander 
Mikhailovitch, 
Russian  diplomat  and 
statesman,  1798-1883. 
He  appears  in 
"  Vivian  Grey  "  under 
the  unpronounceable 
burlesque  of  Prince 
nmpqrtosklw. 


1865.    Pa 
music  and 
arts.      Intro 
"Vivian  Gre 
Prince  of  Litt 
Lilliput 


OTHSCHri.D, 

Lionel  Nathan, 
Baron  de,  banker  and 
philanthropise,  1808- 
1879.     Son  of  the 

5w  banker, 
er 

In  1856 
faisecK^A  0,000,000 
e  Eiyglish 
Governnient  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  the 
Crimeaii  war. 
Appeps  as  the 
interesting  Sidonia  in 
"Cdningsby  "  and 
ancred." 


att  U 


,  George, 
ana  statesman. 
Secretary 
Foreign 
807,  and 
llnister  in 
"o^r  months 
lis  death, 
ificant  name 
ivlan  Grey"  is 
Charlatan  Gas. 


■R  II., 

ssia,  1818- 
Decreed  the 
emanom^tion  of  the 
Russiati  sqrfs  in  1861 
Killed  by  a  bomb 
flung  at  hiin  i|i  the 
streets  of 
St.  Petersburg 
Described  as 
Czarewitch  in 
"  Coningsby." 


irbpist,  I  804- 
Call^  "the 
of  Fre\^ 
Ijecause  of 
ongvadvocacxA 


policy 
Introduced  as  Jo 
Thornben:yi 
"  Endvmion."  j 


.EY,  Percy 

Bysshe,  poet,  1792- 
182 1.     Intimate  friend 
)f  Lord  Byron. 

-ded  with 
atverskm  by  many 
because  of  avowed 
atheistic  vie^  and 
irregukr  life 
DrowneH  off  the  c 
of  Italy,  a^  event 
described  in 
"Venetia,"  irV^^ which 
he  plays  the  part  of 
Marmion  Hernert 


RUN^ 

MhLL, 

Georg(i  Bi-'an 

("BeaiJi'),  1778-1840 

Famoijisjfop  and  ruler 

of  fash 

ion /in  attire. 

Julius 

yofi  Aslingen 

in  "  V 

pin  Grey." 

64 


ixy 


:^ 


Mr    G — DST — NE  :     "  Hm  !     Flippant !  " 
Mk.  D  -SR— LI  :        "Ha!       Prosy!" 

Mr.  Disraeli's  latest  novel,  "  Lothair,"  was  published  at  this  time,  as  was  also  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's work  on  Grecian  Mythology  (i8-o). 


->^  AMr-y- 


K' 


ir 


% 


By  dint  of  his  inherent  force  of  genius,  Disraeli^s 
books  have  not  merely  survived  their  innumer- 
able fellows,  but  they  have  come  to  represent 
to  us  the  form  and  character  of  a  whole  school. 
In  his  person  that  ineffable  manner  of  the 
*^  thirties  ^^  reaches  an  isolated  sublimity  and  finds 
a  permanent  place  in  literature.  It  is  the  living 
Disraeli  who  is  always  magnificently  evident  in 
the  fascination  of  his  printed  pages. 

—EDMUND  GOSSE. 


^(^L 


"NEW  CROWNS   FOR  OLD   ONES!" 

(Aladdin  adapted.) 

The  bill  for  adding  to  the  royal  titles  that  of  Knipress  of  India,  pressed  forward  by  tli 
Government,  was  approved  by  the  country  (1876). 


(^ 


«^ 


^ 


rf>, 


<h. 


I'i^- 


^ 


?y 


I  knew  Disraeli  as  a  statesman,  a  novelist,  and 
an  orator,  in  all  of  which  he  has  made  a  last- 
ing impression  upon  the  universal  mind. 

—HON.  GEORGE  ROSS. 

Premier  of  Ontario. 


-/■•"V 


D 


CN     /O 


'.f-a. 


c^c^^m 


x\- 


<i^\ 


LoRU  E.:    "Vou  have  often  helped //t'r,  Madam." 
India  :    "And  now  I  am  come  to  \\<A\> yoii." 

Lord  Beaconsfield  electrified  the  country  by  the  sudden  summoning  of  a  bodv  of  Indian  troops 
to  Malta  for  service  in  Europe  (1878).  < 


\ 


,<y^f? 


I     ^Q 


Beaconsfield,  in  literature  as  in  politics,  equalled 
the  fame  of  the  greatest  of  by-gone  Englishmen. 
He  was  a  combination  of  patience,  intrepidity, 
strength  of  will,  and  literary  and  political  genius, 
that  occurs  but  once  in  centuries. 

— T.  E.  KEBBEL,  M,A. 


THE    "PAS    DE    DEUX"! 

(From  the  "  Sci'ne  de  Triomphe  "  in  the  Grand  Anglo-Turkish  Ballet  d'Action.) 

Lords  Beaconsfield  and  Salisbury,  in  reward  for  their  labors  as  Plenipotentiaries  at  the  Berlin 
Congress,  were  installed  as  Knights  of  the  Most  Noble  Order  of  the  Garter  (iStSV 


■'^?f 


^^^*^A^*^ 


---cv  :v^ 


V    V''\3 


\U' 


K  ^QCS 


In  descriptive  power,  whether  in  his  novels  or 
in  his  parliamentary  speeches,  I  know  not  of  one 
that  approaches,  far  less  equals,  Disraeli.  I  shall 
not  live  to  see  it,  but  I  am  not  afraid  to  predict  for 
him  a  place  in  the  English  Pantheon,  both  as 
statesmen  and  novelist,  that  shall  yield  in  emi- 
nence to  none.  —LORD  LYNDHURST. 


0(1 


72 


-•vAy;^ 


^^^ 


^ 


The  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  K.G. 

Jf!  the   Eyes  of  Great   Contemporaries 
and  Critics 


The  most  remarkable  man  m  the  parliamentary  his- 
tory of  England.  Zeal  for  the  greatness  of  England  was 
his  passion,  and  his  writings  were  the  molten  expression 
of  it.  —WILLIAM  EWART  GLADSTONE. 


The  life  work  of  Benjamm  Disraeli  in  literature,  equally 
as  in  politics,  is  one  of  the  most  wondrous  tales  which 
sober  truth  has  ever  told.  —JOHN  MORLEY. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  does  not  represent  England — he 
is  England.  .  .  .  The  portrait  of  my  sovereign  hangs 
there  ;  on  one  side  is  that  of  my  wife,  on  the  other  that 
of  Lord  Beaconsfield.     That  is  my  testimony  to  him. 

-PRINCE  BISMARCK. 


vvv 


^ 


A 


'^. 


Beaconsfield  had  the  wit  of  the  Gaul,  the  patience 
of  the  Slav,  the  subtleness  of  the  Oriental,  and  the  dog- 
gedness  of  the  Briton.  Circumstance  was  his  tool,  as  is 
the  case  with  all  born  leaders  of  men. 

—PRINCE  GORTSCHAKOFF. 

As  a  statesman  there  was  none  like  him  before  and 
there  will  be  none  hereafter.  As  a  writer  he  achieved 
greatness  at  a  bound.  —JAMES  ANTHONY  FROUDE. 


o  u 


N; 


\-~^ 


^,<.\ 

m 


//^-:- 


l\f 


onc6ri)ing 
Edmund 


^ 


EDMUND  WILLIAM  GOSSE,  M.A.,  LL.D., 

the  writer  of  the  brilliant  Critical  Introduction  to  the 
series,  was  born  in  London  in  1 849.  In  early  manhood 
he  became  an  assistant  librarian  in  the  British  Museum,, 
where  his  leisure  time  was  devoted  to  a  serious  study  of 
the  literatures  of  various  countries.  Among  Mr.  Goss.e's 
writings  are  "  A  History  of  English  Literature,"  "  From 
Shakespeare  to  Pope,"  and  many  other  volumes  devoted 
to  English  literature. 

In  the  spring  of  1 884  Mr.  Gosse  was  elected  Clark 
Lecturer  on  English  Literature  at  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. In  1 895  he  was  called  to  the  professorship  of 
English  Literature  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and 
four  years  later  received  the  highest  public  honor  within 
the  reach  of  an  English  man-of-letters — viz.,  the  Librarian- 
ship  of  the  House  of  Lords.  This  office  Mr.  Gosse  still 
holds,  and  it  was  by  virtue  of  the  privilege  of  access  held 
by  him  to  important  papers,  as  well  as  from  his  dis- 
tinguished literary  talents,  that  the  honor  was  accorded  to 
him  of  writing  the  Critical  Introduction  to  the  only  Defini- 
tive Edition  of  the  Works  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 


i\. 


THE   MACLISE   PORTRAIT 


_  k\  Apppcci^i©!!  of 
ffoj^l  ofBea€OAs5eld,K6 
,, , ,  Dr  H-  PcreiraMci\des . 

HEN     Wren    built    St. 

Paul's,  did  he  think  only 

1.  of    the    frozen    music    of 

architecture,  of  transept 
and  choir,  of  pillar  and 
dome,  or  did  he  thmk 
ever  of  the  souls,  the 
hearts  to  be  refined  in 
the  sacred  precincts  he 
Vi=:^«3Sr.  planned  .•* 

When  Colon  and  Cabot  trod  the  unexplored 
shores  of  the  new  land,  did  they  think  only  of  the  gain 
of  glory  for  their  monarchs,  of  commerce  for  their 
countries,  of  honors  for  themselves;  or  did  they  think 
ever  of  the  possibilities  of  great  and  independent  nations 
being  born  upon  those  shores,  of  great  human  principles 
being  there  proclaimed,  of  mighty  human  institutions 
being  there  established  ? 

That  Wren  thought  of  souls  to  be  comforted,  of 
hearts  to  be  strengthened,  of  gratitude  to  be  voiced,  and  of 
praise  to  be  rendered,  is  more  than  possible — it  is  probable. 


^. 


That  Colon  or  Cabot  thought  of  future  and  inde- 
pendent nations  or  of  grand  principles  and  mighty  institu- 
tions, IS  impossible.  But  all  three,  Wren,  Colon,  and 
Cabot,  accomplished  great  things  and  unconsciously  pre- 
pared for  greater  things. 

Benjamin  Disraeli,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  built  an 
Empire  and  trod  the  unexplored  shores  of  new  domains 
of  thought  and  action. 

Did  he  think  of  the  magnificence  of  power,  the 
glamour  of  wealth,  the  countless  argosies  of  commerce? 
Or  did  he  think  ever  of  the  higher  aspirations,  the  nobler 
ideals  of  mankind,  of  principles  which  are  fundamental, 
of  institutions  which  are  of  paramount  and  permanent 
importance  in  the  onward  march  of  humanity  in  its 
triumphant  advance  to  ideals  both  noble  and  glorious  ? 

Was  what  he  accomplished  accidental?  Was  he 
a  mere  opportunist,  fortunate  in  being  able  to  seize  occa- 
sions, gifted  with  quick  perception,  shrewd  to  judge  and 
swift  to  strike  ? 

Or  did  he  begin  his  career  with  certain  fixed  ideas? 
Was  he  swayed  through  his  hfe  by  certain  ascertained 
principles ;  was  he  actuated  throughout  his  whole  exist- 
ence as  a  thinker  by  certain  aims  to  be  worked  for  with 
constant  zeal,  to  be  striven  for  with  ceaseless  energy,  to 
be  made  the  very  fibre  of  his  bram,  the  very  reason  of 
his  being  ? 

What  was  his  environment?  What  was  the  force 
of  the  past  as  it  bore  down  upon  him  to  mold  his  char- 
acter ?  What  were  the  conditions  of  his  present,  to 
influence  him  and  call  forth  his  action?  What  were  the 
glimmerings  of  the  future,  as  the  horizon  of  time  appeared 


^ 


A/^ 


^^ 


& 


CO' 


^ 


r 
66 


in  the  dawn  of  history  to  allure  him,  to  dazzle  him,  to 
charm  him,  as  he  gazed  thereon,  and  as  they  were  pict- 
ured on  the  canvas  of  his  imagination  ? 

Like  Wren,  Colon,  or  Cabot,  he  accomplished  great 
things.  But  did  he  consciously  or  unconsciously  prepare 
for  greater  things  ? 

Let  those  who  will  judge  him  harshly,  judge  him 
leniently,  judge  him  disparagingly,  judge  him  glowingly ; 
blame  him,  worship  him,  condemn  him,  praise  him.  I 
can  only  present  him  as  he  appears  to  me,  seen  from  my 
point  of  view ;  at  an  angle  which  to  some  may  show 
him  in  an  untrue  form,  which  to  others  will  show  him 
in  the  only  true  form ;  in  an  aspect  which  to  some  will 
seem  strained,  imaginative,  impossible,  but  which  to 
others  will  appear  correct,  real,  and  certain. 

What  makes  a  man? 

Environment,  temperament,  heredity. 

The  environment  of  Disraeli  was  peculiar.  By 
reason  of  his  father's  eminence  in  literature,  he  .moved  in 
a  literary  world.  His  father's  taste  for  reading  and  his 
power  for  assimilating  what  he  read  could  not  but  in- 
fluence him,  if  he  had  that  taste  and  that  assimilative 
power  himself.  He  had  both.  But  though  a  literary 
world  is  apt  to  be  generous  to  its  own  members,  though 
the  republic  of  letters  is  apt  to  be  tolerant  of  all  shades 
of  opinion,  nevertheless  Disraeli  had  to  face  prejudices 
most  ungenerous,  sentiments  most  intolerant.  The  preju- 
dices, the  sentiments,  will  be  readily  recognized  as  spring- 
ing from  that  unchristian  Christianity  which  preaches 
peace  and  good-will  but  which  practises  social  war  and 
ill-Mqll  to  the  Jew ;  which  bids  men  love  one  another 


'Y 


Wl^^. 


o  O 


^■r^^^lf^^ 


.<^.« 


,  <jU 


b 


^' 


A, 


.^ 


'   6 


^ 


.^ 


O 


— but  not  the  Jew  ;  which  worships  Jesus  but  which 
despises  and  treats  as  inferior  the  very  race  to  which  he 
belonged  and  for  whose  Law  he  pleaded. 

The  social  war  and  ill-will,  the  dislike,  the  contempt, 
the  unjust  treatment  must  always  be  considered  unfortu- 
nate.    But  they  are  not  useless. 

They  were  not  useless  in  influencing  the  environ- 
ment of  Disraeli.  For  if  he  experienced  any  of  the  un- 
pleasant results  of  such  unfortunate  conditions — and  he 
surely  must  have  done  so — they  could  only  have  served 
to  render  his  perceptions  yet  more  acute,  to  make  his 
purpose  yet  more  fixed,  and  to  develop  in  his  character 
yet  more  strength.  For  a  strong  nature  always  becomes 
stronger  through  opposition,  and  a  fine  intellect  becomes 
finer  through  provocation. 

His  further  environment  was  the  world  of  politics, 
on  the  fringe  of  which  he  found  himself,  and  the  world 
of  law,  in  which  he  first  essayed  the  battle  of  life. 

Letters,  pohtics,  law — which  should  he  choose? 

His  temperament  decided.  A  force  within  him 
drove  him  to  seek  eminence.  His  facile  pen  might 
bring  him  renown ;  but  the  renown  of  writers  is  fleeting. 
Not  every  one  can  be  a  Shakespeare,  a  Milton,  an  im- 
mortal. And  as  for  fame  as  a  novehst,  how  few  attain 
fame  that  lasts  even  half  a  century  !  And  what  practi- 
cal good  can  novehsts  accomplish  except  to  sow  seeds 
which  may  "  perhaps  possibly  and  peradventure  "  produce 
some  harvest  of  good,  but  which  are  almost  invariably 
planted  in  sterile  ground?  No.  Literature  might  help 
him  ;  but  for  a  man  of  his  temperament,  literature  alone 
would  not  suffice.    As  for  law,  with  all  the  prospects  which 


English  practice  affords,  it  could  not  possibly  be  sufficient 
attraction  for  such  a  daring  and  practical  mind  as  his. 

Politics  alone  was  left  for  him.  Everythmg  therem 
was  possible.  There  were  difficulties  to  be  faced,  most 
assuredly.  But  for  that  matter,  there  were  difficulties 
which  barred  the  way  to  eminence  in  all  professions. 
He  would  be  compelled  to  face  race  prejudice  in  any 
case.  He  would  need  certain  qualifications,  but  he  be- 
lieved he  possessed  them.  He  felt  that  he  had  patience 
to  plan,  courage  to  work,  swiftness  to  perceive ;  the 
power  of  speech  with  all  the  weapons  in  its  arsenal,  such 
as  satire,  wit,  rhetoric,  eloquence,  persuasion ;  the  power 
of  resilience ;  the  knowledge  when  to  strike  and  how  to 
strike  and  where  to  strike,  and  the  firmness  to  strike  home 
when  the  moment  arrived. 

In  his  second  novel,  "  The  '^'oung  Duke"  ( 1 829), 
he  describes  the  Parliamentary  debut  of  Arundel  Dacre. 
He  cites  the  requisites  for  success  as  an  orator  or  de- 
bater— "  the  clinching  argument,  the  luminous  detail,  the 
withering  sarcasm  that  blasted  like  the  simoom,  the  bril- 
liant sallies  of  wit  that  flashed  like  a  sabre,  the  gushing 
eddies  of  humour  that  drowned  all  opposition  and  over- 
whelmed those  ponderous  and  unwieldy  arguments 
which  the  producers  announced  as  rocks,  but  which 
proved  to  be  porpoises. 

How  eminently  he  personally  possessed  these  quali- 
fications his  career  sufficiently  attests. 

In  gaining  the  necessary  experience  to  learn  how  to 
use  these  powers,  he  might  fail,  he  did  fail;  witness  his 
own  parliamentary  debut.  But  for  every  time  he  failed 
he  succeeded  many  times. 


My  reason  for  these  remarks  is  to  be  found  in  a  study 
of  the  earliest  of  his  works,  "  Vivian  Grey,"  wntten  when 
he  was  only  twenty-two  years  old.  For  the  boy  very 
often  indicates  the  man.  In  reading  this  book  we  won- 
der at  meeting  the  name  Beaconsfield,  whom  he  strangely 
calls  "  powerful,  but  a  dolt "  ;  but  we  are  deeply  im- 
pressed when  we  meet  his  own  name,  which  he  identifies 
with  "  the  rescue  of  many  of  the  questions  of  the  day 
from  what  Dugald  Stewart  or  Disraeli  would  call  the 
spirit  of  Political  Religionism."  How  eloquently  this  last 
remark  shows  the  bent  of  his  mind  at  the  very  moment 
he  was  stepping  upon  the  threshold  of  manhood ! 

But  what  is  of  more  importance  is  his  own  opinion 
of  the  politician  as  he  puts  it  in  the  mouth  of  Cleveland, 
one  of  the  characters  in  the  same  book.  In  view  of  his 
suDsequent  career,  how  suggestive  are  such  words  as  the 
following : 

"  Of  all  delusions  which  flourish  in  this  mad  world,  the 
delusion  of  that  man  is  the  most  frantic  who  voluntarily, 
and  of  his  own  accord,  supports  the  interest  of  a  party. 
I  mention  this  to  you  because  it  is  the  rock  on  which  all 
politicians  strike.  Fortunately,  you  enter  under  different 
circumstances  from  those  which  usually  attend  most  polit- 
ical debutants.  You  have  your  connections  formed  and 
your  views  ascertained.  But  if,  by  any  chance,  you  find 
yourself  independent  and  unconnected,  never  for  a  mo- 
ment suppose  that  you  can  accomplish  your  objects  by 
coming  forward,  unsolicited,  to  fight  the  battle  of  a  party. 
They  will  cheer  your  successful  exertions  and  then  smile 
at  your  youthful  zeal ;  or,  crossing  themselves  for  the 
unexpected  succour,  be  too  cowardly  to  reward  thei"  un- 


expected  champion.  No,  Grey ;  make  them  fear  you, 
and  they  will  kiss  your  feet.  There  is  no  act  of  treachery 
or  meanness  of  which  a  political  party  is  not  capable; 
for  in  politics  there  is  no  honour. ' 

And  not  the  less  significant  are  these  words  which 
he  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Beckendorff,  another  character 
in  the  same  novel : 

"  Man  is  not  the  creature  of  circumstance.  Circum- 
stances are  the  creatures  of  men.  \Ve  are  free  agents, 
and  man  is  more  powerful  than  matter.  I  recognise  no 
intervening  influence  between  that  of  the  established 
course  of  nature  and  my  own  mind.  Truth  may  be 
distorted,  may  be  stifled,  be  suppressed.  The  mvention 
o^  cunning  deceits  may,  and  m  most  instances  does,  pre- 
vent man  from  exercising  his  own  powers.  They  have 
made  him  responsible  to  a  realm  of  shadows,  and  a 
suitor  in  a  court  of  shades.  He  is  ever  dreading  author- 
ity which  does  not  exist,  fearing  the  occurrence  of  penalties 
which  there  are  none  to  enforce.  But  the  mmd  that 
dares  to  extricate  itself  from  these  vulgar  prejudices,  that 
proves  its  loyalty  to  its  Creator  by  devoting  all  its  ado- 
ration to  this  glory — such  a  spirit  as  this  becomes  a 
master-mind,  and  that  master-mind  will  invariably  find 
that  circumstances  are  its  slaves.' 

And  again :  "  Mark  what  1  say :  it  is  truth.  No 
minister  ever  yet  fell  from  his  own  inefficiency.  If  his 
downfall  be  occasioned,  as  it  generally  is,  by  the  in- 
trigues of  one  of  his  own  creatures,  his  downfall  is 
merited  for  having  been  the  dupe  of  a  tool  which  m  all 
probability  he  should  never  have  employed.  If  he  fall 
through  the  open  attacks  of  his  political  opponents,  his 


downfall  is  equally  deserved  for  having  occasioned  by 
his  impolicy  the  formation  of  a  party,  for  having  allowed 
it  to  be  formed,  or  for  not  having  crushed  it  when  formed. 
No  conjuncture  can  possibly  occur,  however  fearful,  how- 
ever tremendous  it  may  appear,  from  which  a  man,  by 
his  own  energy,  may  not  extricate  himself,  as  a  manner 
by  the  rattling  of  his  cannon  can  dissipate  the  impending 
water-spout. ' 

As  for  the  force  which  heredity  exercised  in  the  de- 
velopment of  his  character  and  in  the  creation  of  his 
career,  we  can  never  lose  sight  of  his  Oriental  love  for 
the  magnificent,  his  predilection  for  startling  denoue- 
ments ;  his  Sephardic  love  for  culture ;  his  Jewish  love 
for  the  religious  instinct  in  man. 

The  more  he  moved  in  English  society  and  the 
more  he  came  in  contact  with  the  British  nobility,  the 
more  he  was  forced  to  recognise  the  superionty  of  the 
Jewish  concept  of  anstocracy,  which  makes  learning  the 
title  of  distinction  and  religious  life  the  title  of  nobility. 

The  vice  and  shallowness  of  so  many  of  the  highest 
social  class  forced  him  to  admire  the  religion  in  which 
he  was  born,  the  religion  which  makes  for  holiness  as 
the  chief  end  of  human  life.  That  religion  was  for  him 
personified  by  the  high  priest,  who  wore  on  his  forehead, 
close  to  the  seat  of  thought,  the  motto  of  the  Hebrew, 
his  own  race,  "  Holy  to  the  Lord." 

As  a  Jew  by  race,  he  was  saturated  with  the  ideals 
of  the  Book  of  the  Jew.  He  was  conscious  of  pride 
born  of  the  reflection  that  when  the  sires  of  the  British 
aristocracy  were  woad-stamed  or  skin-clad,  his  own 
Sephardic  sires  were  clothed  in  silks   and   fine   cloths ; 


that  when  those  Norman  founders  of  Enghsh  nobility 
who  came  over  with  the  Conquerer  (himself  a  bastard) 
slew  and  robbed,  his  own  ancestors  had  already  given 
the  world  prophets,  lawgivers,  and  psalmists,  whose 
eternal  teachings  of  righteousness,  purity,  holiness  shall 
endure  until  the  stars  grow  old  and  the  sun  grows  cold 
and  earth  shall  cease  to  be ;  that  when  few  of  the  Eng- 
hsh  could  even  write  their  names  his  fathers  long  had 
been  philosophers,  poets,  and  professors  of  science. 

When  eight  days  old  he  himself  had  been  solemnly 
received  as  a  child  of  the  Hebrew  covenant  by  an 
Abravanel,  Lindo. 

Abravenel !  The  Abravanels  are  descendents  of 
King  David.  Abravanel !  A  name  identified  with 
the  proud  and  illustrious  era  of  Sephardic  Jewish  his- 
tory. What  was  England  in  1 492  when  an  Abravanel 
pleaded  with  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  for  human  rights 
against  the  saintly  demon  Torquemada?  And  what 
were  the  ancestors  of  the  British  aristocracy  and  com- 
moners when  King  David  reigned  and  touched  the  harp 
whose  music  lives  to-day  to  wake  the  heart,  to  call  the 
tear,  to  lift  the  soul? 

Noblesse  oblige !  Who  shall  measure,  who  can 
measure,  the  tremendous,  the  resistless  force  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  ancestry  and  historic  traditions  on  a  mind 
like  his? 

It  would  be  easy  to  illustrate  his  pride  of  race  from 
his  Bentinck  biography  alone.  Its  tenth  chapter  should 
be  read,  studied,  digested  by  every  one  who  has  the 
slightest  reverence  for  Christianity,  love  for  truth,  or  sense 
of  justice.     It  explains  his  pride  of  race,  it  renders  per- 


fectly  natural  his  grand  pleadings  for  his  people  by  birth, 
his  manly  advocacy  of  its  claims  for  recognition  by  the 
world,  his  poetic  delineations  of  its  ideals  for  all  hu- 
manity. Without  his  heredity,  his  Sephardic  traditions, 
his  Jewish  reverence,  there  would  be  no  Alroy,  no 
Sidonia,  no  Tancred,  and  that  glorious  tenth  chapter 
of  the  Bentinck  biography  would  never  have  been 
written. 

Certes,  his  writings  and  his  career  demonstrate  the 
power  of  heredity  in  developing  the  man. 

To  sum  up : — His  environment  made  him  a  strong 
man.  His  temperament  made  him  a  statesman.  His 
heredity  made  him  a  noble  man. 

Now  let  me  present  him  from  my  point  of  view —  for 
I  also  am  Enghsh  by  birth,  I  also  love  England,  and  I 
also,  hke  Beaconsfleld  himself,  am  a  Sephardic  Jew. 

Beaconsfield  was  a  product  of  thirty-two  centuries 
of  civihsation  m  its  highest  and  noblest  sense — the 
government  of  conduct  by  force  of  consciousness  of  God. 
In  other  words,  he  was  a  true  Hebrew.  He  showed 
this  in  both  his  diplomacy  and  his  writings. 

In  his  diplomacy  he  strove  for  progress  and  peace — 
with  honour.  He  gave  evidence  constantly  of  his  intense 
sympathy  with  the  progress  of  the  great  nation  whose 
great  interests  were  so  frequently  confided  to  him.  So 
did  many  other  statesmen — English,  Scotch,  and  Irish. 
But  it  was  he  who  welded  the  component  parts  of  that 
great  nation  into  a  great  empire,  and  who  made  possible 
its  future  development  into  a  yet  greater  earthly  power, 
which,  by  the  joint  action  of  all  English-speaking  races, 
shall  continue  to  make  for  greater  union,  and  so  further 


his  programme  of  progress  and  peace  with  honour — not 
for  the  British  Empire  only,  but  for  the  world. 

Peace,  with  honour !  As  I  write  these  historic 
words,  words  which  will  live  as  long  as  the  British  na- 
tion shall  live,  the  scroll  of  history  is  unfolded  and  that 
scene  is  revealed  which  shows  him  returning  home  after 
the  magnificent  and  triumphant  accomplishment  known 
as  the  Berlin  Conference. 

That  conference  he  convened.  His  is  the  story  of 
its  birth  and  success.  By  convening  it,  he  clothed  with 
action  the  grand  conception  of  two  of  the  prophets  of 
his  race,  *'  arbitration  instead  of  war !  " 

Nor  should  we,  in  mentioning  this  conference,  lose 
sight  of  his  enunciation  there  of  a  world-principle,  first 
thundered  by  yet  another  of  those  prophets — Moses,  our 
master — that  no  nation  has  the  right  to  oppress  another ; 
that  Roumania,  no  more  than  Egypt  of  old,  had  any 
right  to  deprive  the  Hebrews  of  full  liberty.  If  the 
Christian  nations  which  signed  that  treaty  have  not  in- 
sisted on  faith  being  kept  and  signatures  being  honoured, 
it  is  their  fault,  not  Beaconsfield's.  It  does  but  prove  a 
quasi-Christiamty,  which  does  not  rise  to  the  moral  or 
spiritual  height  of  Hebrewism,  which  stands  for  the 
government  of  conduct  by  force  of  the  consciousness  of 

God. 

Environment,  temperament,  heredity,  they  all  spoke 
in  his  work  as  statesman  for  the  benefit  of  his  country, 
in  his  creation  of  an  empire,  in  his  insistance  upon  arbi- 
tration and  hberty  as  essentials  in  humanity's  progress,  no 
less  than  in  his  plea  for  his  race. 

This  labor  for  his  country  made  the  name  of  Eng- 

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land  respected  as  never  it  had  been  since  the  days  of 
Trafalgar  and  Waterloo. 

Disraeli's  creation  of  the  Empire  meant  tne  creation 
of  a  force  which  will  one  day  weld  into  one  all  the 
English-speaking  races  of  the  world  as  surely  as  ir.  ancient 
days  it  welded  the  Heptarchy  into  an  England,  and  as  in 
later  days  it  welded  an  England,  a  Wales,  and  a  Scot- 
land into  a  Great  Britain  with  Ireland. 

What  a  power  for  good,  for  progress,  for  peace  this 
Saxondom — call  it  what  you  will — will  be  in  the  world  ! 

But  what  a  power  for  good,  for  progress,  for  peace, 
has  he  helped  to  make  possible  by  his  promulgation  of 
Hebrew  ideals,  by  his  presentation  of  Hebrew  claims 
for  recognition  by  a  power  in  the  world  of  nations,  by 
his  plea  for  his  race ! 

In  his  writings,  apart  from  those  that  touch  upon 
social  matters,  like  most  of  them,  or  upon  political  mat- 
ters, like  a  few,  we  discern  a  mighty  thread  in  the  web 
of  his  imagination — mighty  because  lustrous  with  the  true 
light  and  true  glory  of  the  deathless  nation  to  which  he 
belonged  by  birth  and  inheritance — the  nation  that  was 
old  before  his  beloved  England  was  even  born. 

Disraeli  is  by  reason  of  that  thread  a  yet  greater 
promoter  of  progress  and  peace — with  honour ;  for  he 
declared  the  intellectuality  of  the  deathless  Hebrew 
nation.  He  sang  its  ideals.  He  told  the  world  of  its 
existence,  to-day  vigorous,  moral,  ideal-loving  as   ever. 

He  declares  the  Hebrews  are  fitted  to  reconstruct 
their  nation.  And  as  prime  minister  of  a  great  world- 
power  of  his  day,  the  princes  and  statesmen  of  the  whole 
world  have  read  his  declaration  and  his  message.     They 


m 


will  one  day  embody  his  suggestion  in  practical  fashion. 

Will  not  the  world  be  richer,  happier,  and  more 
blessed  thereby? 

Yes,  for  then  as  of  old,  Hebrewism  will  stand  for 
the  government  of  conduct  by  force  of  consciousness 
of  God.  Saith  the  Holy  Book :  "  And  in  thy  seed 
shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  Blessed 
indeed  will  be  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  if  through 
Abraham's  seed  the  world  obtams  peace — with  honour. 

Beaconsfield  knew  of  this  promise  divine  to  his 
fathers.  "  And  the  glory  of  the  Lord  will  be  thus  re- 
vealed, and  all  flesh  shall  see  it  together."  Beacons- 
field  knew  of  this  rainbow  of  hope  in  the  tears  of 
history. 

What  a  wonderful  career  for  one  man,  what  great 
accomplishments  for  one  man  to  achieve,  what  miracles 
for  one  man  to  make  possible ! 

A  greater  architect  than  Wren,  he  built  a  vast  and 
beautiful  structure,  the  British  Empire,  when  he  sent 
Edward  to  India  and  crowned  Victoria  Empress. 

He  helped  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  cathedral 
v/hose  transepts  and  choirs  shall  resound  and  wake  the 
echoes  of  all  earth  with  Saxondom's  hymn  of  human 
progress — Saxondom,  that  guaranty  of  peace  for  the 
world.  And  he  helped  to  found  another  infinitely 
grander,  infinitely  more  beautiful  temple  which  one  day 
shall  span  the  world — the  temple  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven — when  at  Berlin  he  set  that  glorious  example 
of  arbitration  for  nations'  differences  or  peace  with 
honour  for  all  nations.  But  he  crossed  the  sea  of  time 
and,  in  his  imagination,  trod  on  shores  of  a  land  hitherto 


limned   but  in  the  prophet's  eye  and  living  but  in  the 
poet's  soul. 

Unlike  a  Colon  or  a  Cabot  he  thought  not  of  glory 
for  only  his  monarch,  commerce  for  only  his  country,  or 
honour  for  only  himself.  But  also  unlike  them  he  did 
think  of  the  possibility  of  a  great  and  independent  nation 
being  born  upon  those  shores,  of  great  principles  being 
there  proclaimed,  of  mighty  institutions  being  there  es- 
tablished. 

The  great  and  independent  nation  was  the  race  of 
the  Sephardim  and  of  the  Askenazim,  one  of  whose 
master  minds  he  portrays  in  the  character  of  Sidonia,  the 
Sephardi. 

Among  great  principles  to  be  there  proclaimed  will 
be  the  government  of  human,  of  national  conduct  by 
force  of  consciousness  of  God. 

And  among  institutions  to  be  thereby  established, 
when  "  from  Zion  shall  go  forth  law  and  the  word  of 
the  Lord  from  Jerusalem " ;  when  "  nations  will  beat 
their  swords  into  plowshares  and  their  spears  into  prun- 
ing hooks " ;  when  "  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword 
against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more " 
will  be  "  Peace  with  Honor  " — For  All  Mankind. 


HistGricdl  Pen  Pictures,  Startling  in  their  Vivid 
Detail  of  the  Inner  Social  and  Political  Life 
of  England  in  the  Golden  Age  of   Victoria 


THE    ROMANCES,    HISTORICAL 

NOVELS,   DRAMAS,  SPEECHES 

AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

OF  BENJAMIN  DISRAELI, 

EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD,  K.G. 


With  a  criticat  introduc- 
tion by  Edmund  Gosse, 
LL,D,,  Librarian  to 
the   House   of   Lords, 


And  a  Biographical 
Preface  by  Robert 
Arnot,  M.A.,  the  edi- 
tor of   the    Series 


Published  exclusively  for  subscribers,  ^and  sold  only  by  subscrip- 
tion.    Each  copy  will  be    numbered  and    signed  by  the  editor 

M.  WALTER  DUNNE 


35  Fifth  Avenue 


New  \'ork 


The  Striking  Features 
of  the  Edition 


THE  three  things  that  make  this  edition  of  the 
writings  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  inimitable  and 
impossible  of  duplication  are :  ( 1 )  The  Official  Keys  to 
the  Characters  introduced  into  the  historical  romances; 
(2)  the  definitiveness  of  the  scope  and  content  of  the 
series ;  and  (3)  the  invaluable  co-operation  of  the  late 
lamented  Lord  Rowton,  whose  aid  in  planning  this  first 
important  and  absolutely  complete  edition  the  Publisher 
was,  by  great  good  fortune,  able  to  enlist.  Not  only  did 
Lord  Rowton  (who  for  many  years,  as  Montagu  Corry, 
was  Lord  Beaconsfield's  trusted  secretary  and  confidential 
friend)  revise  and  complete  the  Bibliography,  but  he 
corrected  the  list  of  the  Keys  to  the  Characters,  supply- 
ing some  hitherto  unknown  and  giving  the  stamp  of 
Official  Authority  to  the  whole.  The  Keys  are  of 
intense  interest,  and  partly  explain  why  Disraeli,  like 
Byron,  awoke  one  morning  to  find  himself  famous. 
These  Keys  precede  the  text  of  the  Historical  Romances 
to  which  they  belong,  and  to  a  student  of  literature  and 
history  have  the  value  of  Human  Documents. 


The  Illustrations 


THE  illustrations  are  reproduced  in  photogravure  from 
original  drawings  by  artists  who  have  made  the 
Victorian  Era  a  special  study  and  whose  names  are 
known  both  in  the  Old  and  New  World.  The  illumi- 
nated tide  and  edition  pages  are  brilliant  examples  of 
color-reproduction.  The  initials  and  tail-pieces  present 
in  their  design  that  strength  combined  with  grace  which 
characterizes  the  decorative  style  of  the  Victorian  epoch 
— a  style  as  remarkable  for  its  repose  as  is  the  Moorish 
for  the  unexpected.  The  result  is  that  this  edition  is  as 
authoritative  a  presentation  from  the  point  of  view  of  bib- 
liography, text,  keys,  art  and  typography  as  lies  in  the 
power  of  living  men  to  make. 


^*Wha.t  manner  of  Man  l^as  this  Builder  of  Empires — 
this  last  of  the  Sephardim—Judah's  loftiest  strain,  this 
Changer  of  the  ancient  disad-vantage  of  his  race,  this  Bringer 
to  the  Nations  of  Peace  unbereft  of  Honour,  this  Magician 
of  the  Pen  and  Voice?  In  sloiu  but  vibrant  accents 
comes  the  judgment  of  Posterity:  He  <wcis  a  Man  -who 
dared  to  dream  of  and,  still  more,  to  achieve  the  seemingly 
Impossible ,  " — Archiushui'  Temple. 


A  Complimentary  Offer  to 
Book    Lovers 


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a  set  of  advance  proof  pages,  illummations,  photogravures, 
and  hand-painted  illustrations,  and  other  interesting  data, 
with  a  very  special  Introductory  Proposition  for  their  com- 
plete edition  of  the  "  Works  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. " 
Simply  send  postal,  or  use  the  attached  inquiry  coupon. 


The  Cambridge  Society 

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Gentlemen : 

Without  assuming  any  obligation,  you  may  send  me  the 
advance  proof  pages  and  data,  v^^ith  special  concessions  to  Advance 
Subscribers  for  the  works  of  Benjamin  Disraeli,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 

NAME 


STREET. 

CITY 

STATE_ 


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pa*'":  Si 

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l:i!il! 


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